Recently, the Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2024 was introduced in the Lok Sabha. It aims at amending the Disaster Management Act of 2005, India’s primary legislation dealing with prevention, preparedness, mitigation, and management of disasters. As we stand at the threshold of undertaking changes to the architecture that governs our management mechanisms, it is imperative to review any shortcomings and think of ways to plug the same.
India, with 2.4% of the world’s land, houses about 17.78% of the global population. It induces pressure on resources, and competition over fragile ecosystems which in turn increases risk for disasters. Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre estimated more than 2.5 million people were displaced in India in 2022 due to natural disasters, especially floods and cyclones. 33.6% of India’s coastline is vulnerable to erosion, a point of concern for coastal States, including Andhra Pradesh which has India’s second-longest coastline. A study published in Scientific Reports points out the increased frequency as well as intensity of cyclones on India’s western coast. Likewise, the incidence of summer cyclones and accompanying damage is equally worrisome.
The damage is both in terms of human as well as financial capital. The Union government’s IMCT put the preliminary damage at more than Rs 6,880 crore due to floods in Andhra Pradesh. This highlights the potential multiplier effects that bridging gaps in disaster management architecture can bring to the people.
Lack of inter-agency coordination
Most disasters in India have different nodal authorities which create an issue of communication gap among stakeholders. The agencies for managing and monitoring earthquakes are the National Centre for Seismology and the Indian Meteorological Department. On the other hand, the Department of Mines handles mining disasters. Given that there is an overlap between the nature of both hazards and no single fusion centre, it gives rise to delay in coordination. The amendment empowers the NDMA and SDMA to prepare disaster management plans at their respective levels by taking away these powers from the National Executive Committee (NEC) and State Executive Committee (SEC). The NEC and SEC, however, remain the coordinating bodies for disaster management. This creates a scenario where the onus of coordination and monitoring still lies with the NEC and SEC, but they do not have a role to play in drafting the plans, thereby affecting efficiency.
Absence of effective decentralisation
The 15th Finance Commission observed that the management of disaster response funds at the state-level needs to change. It hamstrings the district administration’s ability to flexibly deal with emerging threats in line with local needs. Likewise, another aspect to this is the lack of funds for local-self governments and their effective empowerment. In India, despite the constitutionalisation of functions of municipalities, the total municipal expenditure accounts for hardly 0.79% of the GDP.
Non-classification of emerging threats
India witnessed the death of over 5,000 people between 2014 and 2020 due to heatwaves, the intensity of which seems to keep on rising due to global warming. Besides a management strategy and sustainable cooling solutions, the classification of heatwaves in the disaster category is imperative. While successive Finance Commissions have held out from recommending it due to variance across the country, cold waves are classified as disasters. The classification will help increase funding and resources for managing heatwaves.
Meaningful decentralisation
In countries like Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, and Finland, the level of decentralisation is worth emulating. As much as 36.5% of the national GDP in Denmark is spent at the local level for providing social services. This ensures local bodies have the independence to tailor solutions to ground realities and experiment with innovative solutions. The Bill has the provision of empowering NDMA to specify the number and category of employees, along with hiring consultants and experts, with the Union government’s approval. This is a positive development to allow for devolution of powers but it needs to be percolated further down.
International examples
In the post World War years, Japan spent 6-8% of its GDP on an average on disaster management efforts, resulting in the country becoming one of the global leaders. The resilience to natural hazards helped Japan weather crises and rise steadily as an economic powerhouse. One of the best examples is the G-Cans project in flood management implemented in Tokyo, which channels overflowing water through tunnels to avoid flooding. Projects like these can be considered for metropolitan areas across India, including Delhi to ensure that variability in rainfall patterns do not bring life to a standstill. Another best practice can be to develop floodplains in smaller cities as recreational zones which buffers populous areas. Similar models have been tried out in the Netherlands. India would do well to leverage its strategic water partnership with the Dutch to implement the same in India. Underground cabling, as much as feasible, will also go a long way in restoring power connections at the earliest during cyclones.
Summing up
As per EM-DAT, cyclonic storms and resultant flooding have affected over 45 million people since 2019. India stands at the cusp of being the world’s third-largest economy and it is already the most populous nation. It is a foregone conclusion that in order to achieve its innate potential, India should leverage its demographic dividend. Disasters not only adversely impact the lives and property of a community, but also destroy the coping capacity, necessitating interventions in reconstruction and recovery for years together. The nuclear disaster at Hiroshima and the resultant problems decades later is a case in point. The Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill can be a good first step in revamping the architecture and the processes involved. As the recent floods in AP show, political will and hands-on leadership will help us achieve a disaster resilient India.
Urban Disaster Management Authority
The Bill provides for the creation of urban disaster management authorities in state capitals and cities with municipal corporations. Besides the Municipal Commissioner and District Magistrate, the State government is empowered to specify the members. This is an excellent opportunity to rope in experts with policy and practical experience to spearhead efforts. With effective devolution of funds and required autonomy, authorities could be the silver bullet to sustainable urban spaces.
Krishna Prasad Tenneti is an MP, representing the Bapatla constituency of Andhra Pradesh in the Lok Sabha. He also serves on the Panel of Chairpersons in the Lok Sabha and is an ex-IPS officer. Agrima Gupta & Amrit Mahapatra lead the policy and parliamentary office of Krishna Prasad Tenneti. They have been LAMP Fellows of the 2022-23 cohort